Several of the homes I am working in right now seem to have an over abundance of greeting cards. These are cards the family members have received over the years. One of the questions I get asked frequently is “should I keep these cards? I will get to that in a minute. In the mean time I find it interesting that most of these greeting cards are in an old box, they are bent and sometimes still in the envelope….unopened! Boxes of cards can get very dusty and musty smelling too.

Do you have boxes of greeting cards that you have received?

What is your purpose of keeping them?

Read on to get the TOP 5 Getting It Together’s TIPs on What to do with your greeting cards.

Tip#1 Decide if you are an Ecard person or a paper card person. Pick one method and stick to it. Some people are NO card people. Maybe as a family they have decided to not send any cards. (You might decide to put the money you would spend on cards and donate it to a charity of your choice) Then there is the “send out card” company. They do all the work for you once you have given them all your details.

Tip#2: Purpose. What is the purpose of keeping a card? If you give someone a card do you expect them to keep it FOREVER? Probably not. Just like if someone gives you a card they do not expect you to keep it forever. I heard of a lady who kept every card she had ever received. Her thought was that she would re-read them all one day when she was in an “old folks” home. She thought she would like to remember all the kind things people had said to her. I visit an extended care home once a week and I hate to say it but there is no room in those places for a lifetime supply of greeting cards.

Tip#3: Keep the very special ones. So you decide that yes indeed you would like to keep the very special cards. After each Birthday, Anniversary, festive holiday season sit down with a cup of tea.

Look over all your cards and select your 2-3 most precious ones. I put one or 2 of my most special greeting cards in random places in my www.1t031.com binder. That way when I open a page I get a warm fuzzy feeling from the person who sent me the card.

Tip#4: Store them properly. Once you have narrowed down your cards, store them in a plastic shoe box. Many hardware stores carry these boxes at a very reasonable price. Our local store just had them on for .67cents (Canadian) each. It would be fair to have one box per person in the household.

Tip#5: Recycle, repurpose. Please be sure to recycle all greeting cards you are not keeping or repurpose them. One way is to turn your old greeting cards into gift tags. Cut out part of the pretty picture, punch a hole in the upper corner and put a ribbon through it. Check in with your local school or senior centre’s to see if they would like cards for craft projects. I knew one lady who could take a greeting card and turn it into a box. She then put small candies or a piece of jewelry in it and gave them away.

Love to hear from you. What do you do with your greeting cards? Please leave a comment in the box below.

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PS: This picture is of the system I use to store new greeting cards. This box has dividers in it for all of the special occasions. Once I buy my cards I simply file them under the appropriate occasion. I also use my perpetual calendar that is part of my 1to31 Organizing System. This helps me keep track of all my friends and families Birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions. Check it out www.1to31.com